Enjoy some 1st Bday pics for Blake & Jordan as well as some nice poses from Brooke...! Click on slideshow if you want to go to view pics individually...

Happy 1st Birthday Blake and Jordan!!!!!

Well, we made it through the first year! We are still married and everyone is still alive!!! Wooo Hooo! As you can imagine life is very busy in our house. Jason started a new job in November, which he likes very much and feels like it's a great fit. However, due to the terrible economy they have laid several people off, don't worry Jason was not one of them, and he is now having to work long hours and sometimes weekends. So, things are even busier then they were before. That's one reason we have neglected our blog for so long.

We celebrated Blake and Jordan's 1st Birthday last weekend with a "Mickey Mouse" party. I can't believe this last year went by so fast...I'm relieved it's over in a way. I am soooo glad to know the newborn phases of our lives are over. I really don't anticipate the desire to ever go back there!

Anyway, we had a family birthday party and still had about 15 people or so. The boys enjoyed their cakes and Brooke and Devin had fun helping them open their gifts. Devin was asking when it was going to be his birthday. I was afraid he was going to have a fit, but helping open gifts seemed to be enough for him.

Blake had his surgery the day before his birthday, the surgery went well and there were no surprises. After the surgery the Dr. was talking to us about how things went and what he saw and did not see. I was holding Blake and he was a bit fussy so I didn't get to pay real close attention, but one thing I did hear him say was "I didn't find any female organs..." I heard what he said but I didn't get to comment on it or even think about it. Later that night Jason said "I'm sure glad they didn't find any female organs!" I didn't even know it was a concern, it was a bit surprising! If they had found them, then that would have meant Jordan would have had them too!

As far as development goes the boys are doing great. They are not walking yet, but that is OK with us. They are pulling themselves up on things and getting into things they shouldn't now. Jordan was trying to get the toilet open the other day. They sure make us all laugh a lot and it's fun to watch Brooke and Devin with them. It's fun to watch the two of them together, they are playing together now. They reach out to each other and stand up to look in each other's cribs. They will take toys from each other and then throw fits sometimes and laugh about it other times.

Brooke is enjoying Kindergarten, they just celebrated 100 days of school. The other day they had pajama day at school, Brooke thought it was on Thursday and I just didn't pay that close of attention to the email her teacher sent. It was actually on Friday, so Brooke got to wear pj's to school two days in a row. She is now doing Balett on Mondays after school and Awana's at church on Wednesdays. Thank goodness other mom's have offered to come and get her and bring her home.

Devin is a typical three year old boy. He's into hitting and pinching and running as fast as he can! He also likes to give lots of hugs and kisses, so it makes up for the pain he causes! :)

Jason is of course busy working long hours, but then we get him to ourselves on the weekends.

I have started playing soccer on Monday nights on an women's indoor league. It's a lot of fun, very good exercise. I fall down or get knocked down every time, I figure it's good for me...

Well, we will try and keep up on our blog. We can't make any promises, but we will make a good effort! Take care and thanks for reading! :)

Little Devin Fell out Window and Bonked his head. He is fine though...

Devin is fine, but we just got home from the ER. He was playing on the window sill in the downstairs window, he likes to jump onto the couch from the sill even though he knows he is not supposed to. I was in the backyard putting sleeping bags in the tent, where we were going to sleep, so he opened the window. I told him to stop climbing on the window sill. Both he & Brooke did it again so I started walking around the house to make them stop. As I was half way to the gate in the front, I heard D start screaming. I knew what happend and sure enough I ran to him and he was screaming on the ground below the window. I was carrying him inside and told him I was frustrated and mad that he did not listen to me. At that point I did not see any blood. Then I realized there was a cut on the back of his head, but it was not bleeding real bad - surprising for a head wound. (he fell about 3.5' on 1/4"- gravel)

We thought it looked a little deep so we took him to ER at Evergreen. They put 2 staples to hold it together. The cut was about 1/4".

Before we got in the car, I was holding Dev and I think he realized I was worried. He looked at me and said "I'm ok daddy." All the way there he was fine and laughing, just like normal, but at one point he said he had a burn on the back of his head. He did not cry at any time in the hospital until the Dr. put staples in...of course.

I cannot stand the feeling I have right now, I am just glad it was not worse. Poor little guy. Please pray he sleeps well and it does not hurt him anymore.

All the other kids are doing well. Grandma & Pa Pa came over to watch them.

J

Exciting Times At Our House!!!!

WOW, our boys are six months old now! Just think, this time last year we had just found out we were having twins, and now our life is totally different! The boys had their six month check ups. It has taken me so long to update because I am just so dang busy! They both are doing really well, I had to take all the kids with me to the appointment, so I didn't get to pay as close attention as intended to with. Devin was having fun playing in the sink and getting his shirt all wet, then he was throwing the paper from the counter all over the floor...it was chaos!!!!! Next time I will make sure I don't get the appointment time all mixed up so I will have the babysitter at the right time!
Jordan is in the 10% for height and he weighs 16lbs and is in the 25% for weight. I wanted to ask if they were still on the premie growth chart, but I forgot to ask. Then they didn't fill out the stuff on Blake's paper, and of course I didn't notice until I got home. But they are both pretty close anyway. One thing about Blake, we need to take him to see the surgeons at Childrens, as he seems to have one testicle that has not dropped. Our pediatrician doesn't feel it either, so, either it's not there or it will need to be surgically lowered if it hasn't done so on it's own by 12 months of age. It's nothing to worry about, even if he does have to have surgery, but pray that he wont.
As for other exciting news! Devin, up until last night has been absolutly uninterested in potty training. Finally we changed his mind. Brooke is still wearing pull ups to bed and this time she wanted "Cars" pull ups, well Devin saw those and wanted to wear them too! We told him if he wanted to wear car pull ups he had to go potty in the big boy potty, so off he went to go potty! He was dry all day today and even went #2 twice in the big boy potty! Now that's what I call easy! Lets hope it stays that way!
On Sunday we are having Devin's 3rd Birthday party at the park by our house, he is very excited for his "Monster Jam" party! He loves those big trucks!
Other exciting news.....only 4 more days till Brooke is an official Kindergartener!!!! Times change fast, don't they!!!!

Pics from our August 2008 activities

Brooke's first Soccer Practice and other pics! (click on show to see pictures)


Decatur Island (click on icon to see pictures)

Decatur Island (san juans)

Lazy Days of Summer!

Here we are in the middle of summer. It's very hot today, but heard it's supposed to get yucky! No my favorite. We went to the San Juan's this last weekend with some friends and had a great time. The kids all did really well, even Blake and Jordan who still slept through the night. I was preparing to not get much sleep since we all slept in the same room, but they did just fine.
I took the boys to the Dr last week as they both had congestion and coughs. I didn't want to get up in the middle of nowhere and have them get really sick. Blake was a little worse than Jordan, so the Dr gave him an antibiotic to help get rid of his cough and congestion. He seems to be doing better now.
They are now playing in exersaucers and enjoy them,they don't like to be in the swings much now unless they are tired, they would rather play.
We have a young friend from church over today to keep Devin and Brooke busy, their outside playing right now, it's nice to have some down time. Blake and Jordan are taking naps right now! I'll try to get some new pictures on here soon!

Pearrygin Lake 2008

Grandma watched Blake & Jordan while the rest of us went camping 4th of July weekend. We had a great times! Enjoy the slide show! (I admit, the pics are biased to the Ripke family. Next year I will make a point to take more of all who we camp with...) ;-)

Simply click on slideshow to get to still photos as well as our other photo albums...